500,000 hits and a look into the past and the future

500,000

I have reached half a million hits!  Never did I think I would get there. This is from Google blogger stats, they are not the same as Google Analytics that cut out bots etc.  Without the bots it is really just over a third of this.  But hey,  let’s not dwell on that J It is also nearly 11 years since my first post.  Until last month I thought it was 10 years and believed it was serendipity that I reached 500,000 and 10 years about the same time.  I then thought about it a little more and looked it up and my first post was April 2010.  So 11 years, not 10 and throw out serendipity!

What is on the blog?

For the 10 years prior to 2010 I had done very little gaming – about 1-2 games per year, reading a few articles here and there. In 2010 I had children aged 2 and 4 and thought a blog would be a good way to get back into gaming. My 300,000 post has a lot more detail on the background to starting the blog.  I did start this blog to do one thing – play the same battle (I chose Callinicum 531AD) with different ancient rules.   I managed 7 different rules with Callinicum  and then about 14 with Heraclea.  After a few year I did what all wargamers do and branched out – 20mm WW2.  And then decided to create some solo ancient rules of my own.  Then some WW2 rules of my own.  And acquired some 6mm WW2 and ancients and started playing some games with them too.

My focus has moved from replaying ancient games with the different rules to playing chronologically a long list of ancient historical battles with my own rules.  Slow going though as currently up to Sulla’s battles against Pontus (86BC). 

And also wanting to play 30 scenarios from an Operation Jupiter campaign book with 20mm WW2 (halfway but currently stalled at game 15).

And occasionally challenging myself to a series of game such as using Imperator for a campaign to generate battles, 30 battles in 30 days and 15 dark age battles in a month

Throughout all of this, almost every game has been solo and in a set of map drawers – a great way to have multiple games on the go at once.  It is another reason for so many of my games being on a 2’x2’ board!

Top 10 posts

These are the top 10 posts based on Google Analytics so are what users are actually interested in rather than the bots (bots really seem to like the post with our cat eating a 20mm tree during a game).

1. Starfire with miniatures battle report (2013)
2. WW2 Portable game – “play in a box” 4x3 grid battle reports and rules development (2017)
3. Two battle reports using Triumph rules
4. 1986 6mm British Vs Warsaw Pact battle report (2015)
5. 10 One Hour Wargames scenario battle reports using my own rules (2020)
6. Four WW2 games on a 24cmx24cm 12x12 grid and rule description (2018)
7. Irregular Ancients rules review (2010)
8. Battle of Magnesia game (2020)
9. WW2 6mm East Font 1943 battle report (2019)
10. Links to Armati rules reviews (2010)

Some are from the first year (The Armati and Irregular miniature Ancient rules reviews for instance) and the 10 One Hour Wargames post at number 5 is from 2020.  The rest are scattered across the years.

Other stats

• 123 followers. never thought I would get past 10, let alone past 100!
• 216 posts – about 1 every 2 ½ weeks.  None of my posts seem to end up being short and are generally battle reports or reviews.
• 985 comments (average of nearly 5 per post but half are me responding).

The last few years

Since mid-2017 my posts, and solo gaming, have been half or less of previous years. Normally about 24 per year, 2018 was only 6 as an example.  The 400,000 blog post from December 2018 explains the main reason – house renovating.  We moved into the half-renovated house in mid-2019 but still doing bits and pieces of reno here and there. So still going!

Work has been busy in 2020 (I work in IT in healthcare) and my gaming mojo I lost in 2018 never really came back, except odd spurts. Actually, my gaming mojo was mostly about playing games.  I used to be able to play a game over a few weeks just playing 5-10 minutes here and there.  I seem to have lost that art and prefer slightly longer session times at the table, around  20-30 minutes.  These slots are harder to find and the children are a bit older and between them and spending time with my wife I don’t have a lot of free time in the evenings (when I used to play).

When it comes to rules writing I do that more than ever.  And I also have been coding up rules into an Excel Spreadsheet and spend many, many (too many hours) tweaking it to automate as much of the rules as possible!  This is especially true for my attempt at finding an SF RPG and solo skirmish rules that I can play solo Classical Traveller Adventures and Pulp Alley campaigns.  I have another blog for this and I think I have written a set that will work.

BUT….

Going forward

I think my mojo is back.  While I had no time over the Christmas break for gaming, I seem to have got it back, at least since November 2020.  I am playing some more ancient games, I have started a 6mm WW2 campaign, played some Machinas (post-apocalyptic car racing, no blog posts though) and looking at playing more of the SF RPG.  And playing solo the board game The Final Frontier about 1 turn a week or two and blogging about it (to eventually create a Solar system setting for some SF RPG adventures).

In 2018 I wrote a post that became a blog page where I outlined what my potential priorities for gaming might be over 2018-2022.  Having not done much gaming since 2018 and my interests are unchanged, it still holds mostly true now and probably for the foreseeable future.  I have updated the blog page with commentary on how I am going at the same time I write this post.

Final word

I will just copy what I said in my 200,000 milestone post back in 2015 as it still just at true in 2021:

The gaming blogging community is still going strong and I cannot imagine a gaming life without it.  When I started blogging I did not dream how wonderful it would be and I am grateful and glad to be a part of it.  Thanks to all out there that continue to read gaming blogs, comment on them and/or write their own. Gaming is just that much better with you around.

Good gaming!